Bengals still empty in playoffs

January 20, 2014|Reuters

The Sports Xchange

NFL Team Report - Cincinnati Bengals - INSIDE SLANT

If you would have told Cincinnati Bengals fans three years ago that they would be making three straight trips to the playoffs, they would have celebrated. The fact that there was immense disappointment after a 27-10 loss to San Diego in the AFC wild-card round shows that expectations have changed. A lot.

The Bengals are the first team since the 1995 Detroit Lions to go one-and-done in the playoffs three straight seasons. Of the seven teams in the Super Bowl era to do this, only one has made it back to the playoffs a fourth straight year.

Head coach Marvin Lewis' message throughout has been that they have to move forward.

For another offseason, the attention will rest on the offense and quarterback Andy Dalton. Despite setting franchise single-season records for passing yards (4,293) and touchdowns (33), Dalton struggled in games against division foes and in the postseason. It's one thing to beat Detroit and Buffalo, but you also have to defeat the teams you are regularly measured against.

Dalton was the fifth quarterback in league history to lead his team to the playoffs his first three years in the league but the first to go winless in those games. Dalton has 30 wins but of his 21 losses, three have been in the postseason.

"I think everybody knows what I've been able to do here, what we've been able to do since I've been here as a team. And so I think I've got a lot of confidence in the stuff Marvin has been telling me," Dalton said. "I expect to be here for a long time. I'm hoping that is the case. I've got a good relationship with Marvin; he's been telling me a lot of good stuff. Yeah, it's unfortunate that we lost, but we've been able to improve every year that I've been here."

Lewis said Dalton continues to take positive steps forward and that as coaches "we need to continue to do things to make his job just easier and easier to do." When pressed, Lewis did not offer specifics on what those things might be.

Whether or not that is enough to get a contract extension remains to be seen. Besides Dalton, wide receiver A.J. Green will be in line for an extension that could mirror the money given to Detroit's Calvin Johnson and Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald.

A defense that lost cornerback Leon Hall and defensive tackle Geno Atkins ended up finishing third. Linebacker Vontaze Burfict led the team in tackles and has emerged as the leader of the unit. It is likely though that they will lose one of the major pillars on the defensive line as defensive end Michael Johnson will become a free agent.

Despite that they still played well and got wins over Super Bowl winning quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco.

"I understand everybody looks at the ranking and those kind of things are important but we played a lot of excellent quarterbacks, Super Bowl quarterbacks," defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer said. "So, for us to be able to continue on I would have liked to see what we could have done if we had all hands on deck. But we did good for the people that we had and all the players they worked their rear ends off for us."

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NFL Team Report - Cincinnati Bengals - NOTES, QUOTES

--For the past couple years, the Bengals have tended to drift away from one of their personas, which is a physical team that liked to run the ball. New offensive coordinator Hue Jackson will try to get that back on track.

"We're not going to shy away from having to throw it when we need to. In order to win and be a very good offensive football team, you have to be able to run the ball, and that's going to be a starting point for us," Jackson said.

Jackson is replacing Jay Gruden, who after three years in Cincinnati is becoming the Redskins head coach.

With A.J. Green and Marvin Jones leading the way among the receiving unit along with tight ends Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert, the Bengals have an abundance of weapons in the passing game. They were eighth in the league in passing as quarterback Andy Dalton set a team single-season record for passing yards (4,293) and touchdowns (33).

But in order to take some of the pressure off Dalton and be more consistent, there has to be more of a commitment to the running game.

In his two years in Oakland, the Raiders were second in rushing offense in 2010 and seventh when he was the head coach in 2011. Both seasons it was the duo of Michael Bush and Darren McFadden. He has a similar type pairing now with BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Giovani Bernard.